State Grant Program Provides Funding to Support Local Breastfeeding Projects

This spring, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) announced four new grantees will receive funds to support breastfeeding in their communities. Breastfeeding supportive work will begin on July 1st in 16 counties over the three year grant cycle. Work will focus on increasing worksite breastfeeding support by local employers and child cares by protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding-friendly environments.Several research studies have found lower initiation rates and shorter breastfeeding durations among employed mothers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the 2011 Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding, the majority of mothers in the United States return to work by the time their infants are six months old and a lack of supportive workplace policies can inhibit breastfeeding initiation and duration. Evidence demonstrates that breastfeeding-friendly policies and programs in the workplace and child cares enable women to continue to provide breast milk for significant periods. By increasing workplace and community support, grantees will work to increase breastfeeding support in their regions.Grant projects include:

Boulder County Public Health – Breastfeeding-Friendly Environments in Boulder County. Grant focuses on increasing breastfeeding-friendly workplaces and child cares in Boulder County, including providing employer incentives to create lactation rooms, with a focus on low-income employers.

Chaffee County Public Health – Chaffee County Public Health Community Wellness Initiative. The initiative will work to promote and improve health and wellness of the residents of the Salida Hospital District. This includes support and expansion of the Diabetes Prevention Program and increasing the number of policies and practices that promote and support breastfeeding-friendly environments in Chaffee County. The project will focus on breastfeeding initiatives in work places, child cares, and continuity-of-care programs to support breastfeeding families.

Delta County Health Department – West Central Public Health Partnership (WCPHP) Worksite Wellness Program. The program will promote worksite wellness policies and practices, including workplace lactation support. The WCPHP serves six counties: Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel.

Northeast Colorado Health Department in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Center for Health Promotion – Challenge for Better Choices. Grant focuses on assessing and encouraging worksite wellness and breastfeeding policies and practices in worksites, child cares and other public places in Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma Counties.

Funding is provided through the CDPHE Cancer, Cardiovascular and Chronic Pulmonary Disease (CCPD) Grant Program. Created in 2005, the CCPD Grant Program utilizes revenues from Amendment 35, a tobacco tax increase, to fund competitive grants throughout the state.